Only by the Night
by colorfulCheshire
Summary: There are hidden feelings and inner journeys in each of us. We all strive for a brighter day among hard times. The truth is revealed only by the night. -Collection of stories inspired by the Kings of Leon album. NOT SONGFICS. Ratings and couples vary.
1. Closer

**I've decided to continue and write Shinzo stories for the entire album, Only by the Night by 'Kings of Leon'. The chapters will be in order of the track list so if you want to know what's next, just check the track list online. I also highly suggest you listen to each song during their respective chapter. I am writing each one, continuously listening to the song so that I can properly write based off the song's mood.**

**This first chapter is set after the English ending, after Mushra wakes on Enterra and sees the card (either the Guardian card or Lanancura's card, which I'm not sure of. If you know for sure, please tell me when you review.)**

**Favorites are nice but I love reviews more.**

**Disclaimer: I own neither the songs nor the show.**

1. Closer

Rating: K  
Genre: General / Journey  
Character: Mushra

Eyes as blue as the sky stirred beneath tanned lids. The enterran's face scrunched for a moment, before the curtains of sleep were finally lifted. Slowly he opened his eyes to the night's pale light, staring up at the white full moon in wonder. It was high in the sky now; the only evidence of the day was a thin, dying ribbon of pink peeping behind the hills.

Mushra sat up on his branch, rubbing the sleep from his eyes and stretching his arms wide, his entire back cracking with the effort after being stiff for so long. It had been a long, hot day; even with the cover of the leaves, his face felt a bit raw from a light burn. It was cool now, and he thanked the breeze that soothed his face as he dropped from the tree onto the soft grass. His legs protested, still tired from yesterday's journey, and he grimaced, looking down at his hoverboard with a frown on his brows. He needed to get it fixed and soon. He was full of stamina, but with the lack of food and proper sleeping places, even he couldn't keep it up for long.

He stretched a bit longer, loosening his muscles for the long night's journey, and drank half of his canteen. He strapped his hoverboard to his back and his bag at his side before looking back at the moon. He knew what time it was (he had become accustomed to this nocturnal schedule) and quickly found the direction he was looking for. He made sure he had everything together and set off to the west.

He didn't know where they were, but he knew they were west. He would keep traveling that way until he could find some more clues about his lost friends. With a slight pang of sadness, he remembered one of the earlier weeks with her.

_"Hey, uh, where is this Shinzo place anyway? I mean-" his words were cut off, though, with a simple answer._

_"Don't worry, I'm sure it's easy to find. It's in the west," she replied honestly._

_He had scrunched his eyes up, not believing the simplicity of this endangered girl. He was surprised at how long she had lasted already._

_"Oooh, West of __**where**__, Yakumo?" his question rang through the deserted ruins, though the human girl didn't seem to notice._

A small smile tugged at his lips from the memory, despite loss he felt. He broke into a run, the moon shining brightly at his back and a dark road ahead of him. As he stared ahead, he wondered if he ran fast enough, would he be swallowed by the dark mysteries ahead. He didn't know what awaited him, but he could feel it out there.

* * *

He couldn't believe it. He _knew_ this place. He had been here with her . . . and them. It was a ghost town before, but now it was downright creepy. Old power lines from the human days were pulled down, the black cords lazing on the ground like snakes. The ground was bare and cracked, a few dried weeds poking through the dead earth. The moon's light bathed the abandoned town in a silky, ethereal light. A shiver ran down the teen's spine, and he had half a mind to go all the way around, giving the graveyard town a wide berth as he traveled on his path.

But he couldn't leave it like that, without even a glance. He decided that as it had many times, the night was just getting to him. He continued through the town with this in mind. He had to make sure, to see what had happened to this town they had encountered on their pilgrimage.

With slow, steady steps, Mushra entered the abandoned bar. It was the same place they had taken her that day she was sick and so extremely weak. A pang of guilt arose as he remembered how he had abandoned her for food, but it passed quickly enough. He walked over to the bar to see if there might be any type of rations lefts. As expected, there were none.

He looked around the entire place, and oddly enough it appeared just as they had left it. The window upstairs was still broken from the kidnapping, the tables overturned in the bar, and there was still that mark on the wall from the bug-enterran whose head he bashed through the paneling.

A breeze blew in from the open door, causing something to flutter in the corner of his vision. He went over to investigate and found the wanted poster for the 'Human Monster, Yakumo'. With a sigh, he tore away the title and words, leaving the picture, and folded it neatly into his pack.

She had taken everything from him: his mind, his soul, his life, his heart, his meaning. He didn't mind, though. It hurt, but he'd do it all again, showing no mercy to those who would hurt her, not this time. He knew that taking the picture meant that she still had a hold of him, even when she wasn't there anymore.

Taking one more look at the shell of a town, he couldn't believe how long it had been, even more so how much farther he had to go.

Deep inside, he could feel it coming closer.

* * *

Golden-orange feathers fluttered to the ground silently as he flexed them in the midnight air, the moon's pale light bathing them in mystery. Now a full grown man in his hyper form, he turned back to the house he was leaving. It more of a small hut than an actual building and this made him all the more grateful.

A family of dog-enterrans had taken him in, clothed him, fed him, and made him feel at home, not asking questions about his intentions or his strange sleep schedule. At the time, he had been a dirty, weary enterran with little food and carrying a hoverboard with a hopelessly busted battery pack. Their son had found him sleeping in the woods and for a month after he stayed there. He had fixed his hoverboard, gained his strength, and was able to see what he and his friends had protected.

He left a pouch of coins in the flower pot, knowing the mother would be up early in the morning tending to the yard. It was the least he could do for them.

He gathered up his things in a bag, hugging it close to his chest. Steadily flapping his wings, he rose into the air, his crystalline eyes pleading a silent goodbye to the small town he had come to call home. He knew he couldn't stay; he had to keep going.

He had heard something from a traveler that day about a cat that had a black hole for a stomach and a water-enterran he had won a blue cape from in a game of cards. Mushra was able to get a look at the cape and confirmed that it had belonged to his friend. He bought it from the traveler and as he flew over the dark ocean he found himself patting the side of the bag it was in, wrapped over Yakumo's picture.

He continued for miles over that icy black liquid, watching the reflection of the moon once it finally appeared ahead of him. The only sounds were the wind against the side of his fiery red helmet and he was grateful for his armor and the warmth provided by his hyper-form. With a small smile he wondered how long it would take to reach shore with this speed. As the moon steadily sank ahead of him, he caught a glimpse of ruins on the horizon. He could reach land by the morning, but he knew he'd have to wait another night till he came to the ruins.

He flew on, the winds changing around him, giving signs of a storm bubbling up from the sea. In the same sense, he felt that same feeling before rolling over inside of him. He knew it was coming closer.

* * *

Apparently his body decided it could skip a day's rest. Once he got to shore, he had landed and changed back, getting ready to sleep. Instead he ate through half of his rations and continued from there on his hoverboard until he was at the edge of the woods, the ruins just a stones throw away.

He moved out from beneath the thick foliage slowly, the midday light irritating his eyes as he looked around. He explored around for a bit before he made it to the top a hill littered with graves. It overlooked a destroyed town and he wondered for a moment if the graves were for all the townspeople.

Though, as his eyes traveled the makeshift graveyard of wooden crosses, something latched a hold of his heart and called out to him. Stepping off his board, he walked forward, following the strange tug that moved him until he came to a stop at one grave in particular. It was a tall wooden cross with a long piece of once-white fabric draped over it. The foot of the cross held no name plate (none of the graves did) but in its place sat a withered bouquet of The Enterran Flower of Hope and an old blonde doll with bright blue eyes.

He stood there for quite a while, the harsh sun beating down on his back, trying to gather his thoughts. He wondered if she thought of him wherever she was, if she asked where he was and how he slept . . . how he lived without his friends. By the time the sun was setting he had resolved to pray to her, asking her for her help in his journey still to come.

Before he left that night, Mushra added his own bouquet made of wild flowers from the forest and a marker to her grave. It was a wide, flat piece of stone, possibly from a building, in which he had burned the words "She lives on in each of us forever" into the surface. He gave a final goodbye and thank you before turning to the horizon, the black sky beckoning him forward.

He knew he still had a long ways to go, but whatever destiny awaited him, it was coming closer: forever closer.


	2. Crawl

**I'm deleting chapter 11 for now, until I finish, because I'd get OCD with the reviews.**

2. Crawl

Rating: T

Genre: Romance/Horror

Characters: Mushrambo/Rusephine

_Warning: lime, innuendos, implied lemon, and blood. You have been warned._

There was nothing so terribly wrong with the screaming, he often found himself wondering. He actually found it quite romantic when accompanied by the setting sun, crimson as the bloodied battle ground. He had had quite some time setting up the beautiful requiem, hoping the woman before him would be pleased. So why, he contemplated, did she sneer in disgust every time one of the pitiful creatures wailed in agony, forcing her to tear her lips away from his to glare down at the broken things?

"Absolutely disgusting," she murmured low beneath her breath, turning away from a bloodied groaning woman. Ignoring the distraction, her violet eyes found his – deep maroon orbs studying her with amusement and something animalistic.

Her thin arms slid around his waste, pressing her body against his, and tilted her head up to him. He took the invitation immediately, claiming her cold purpled lips with his own, his hands snaking up her back over the ruffled white feathers of her wings and to her hair, his fingers entwining in her wavy blonde mess and combing out the drying blood.

Her entire body was cold, the winter winds not what the Bird Queen preferred for flight. He drew her closer to himself, shielding her from the wind as his arms fell to her waist, his fingers now playing with the silky fabric of her shirt. Rubbing her back, he deepened the kiss, intent on warming her cold face.

The woman responded with a quick, hard bite of his lower lip, causing the amethyst-haired general to pull back, his maroon eyes narrowing in a glare as a smirk wormed its way across her pale face.

She pulled an arm away from his waste, bringing her hand up to his face to caress his warm cheek. He continued to glare as she eyed his lips, the pain already pulsing where she had bitten. She ran a finger across his lower lip and brought it back to show him - a crimson streak gleaming in the light. His eyes only narrowed further as she reached up to lick away a drop of blood from his sore lip, her eyes never leaving his own.

"What?" she laughed, her voice smooth and sultry, "the Dark King can't handle a little pain?" Her fingers traced swirling patterns along the side of his neck.

He reached down to touch lips for a short moment, pulling away to whisper into her ear, his deep voice tickling her skin, "Some might call this mutiny."

"And side with the humans?" she asked, her lips tickling the base of his jaw, as she tried to hide the unwanted thought of even looking at those disgusting beings.

"You are wearing the colors of their flags," he chuckled as he pulled back, his lips running across her cheeks to her lips before parting. He smirked as, curious, she reached up to feel her cheek, now wet with his blood – a red streak across pale, white skin.

"Their flags mean nothing anymore," she chuckled, wiping away most of the blood with the side of her hand, leaving a smeared crimson streak, "all burned and tattered over the graves of their leaders. They all crawl away to their rat holes, abandoning any commitment to their precious country, the crucified USA." She sneered, "Disgusting lowlifes."

"It is time for the Age of the Humans to end." The Dark King smirked, the flames of the fallen buildings flickering in his eyes as another gust of wind fed the fires. "The enterrans once kneeled before them in slavery, but now it shall be they who crawl before our feet, whimpering like beaten pups before their blood stains the ground of their once great kingdom."

A devious smile was shared between both generals as they turned to the setting sun, the horizon foretelling the prophecy for the Age of Enterra.

"Now we just have to finish off those annoying pests and we shall rule the new age," she mused, resting her head on his chest, wrapping her arms around him again to hold him close, and listened to his heartbeat.

The woman on the ground let out a delirious wail, clutching the hole in her side; her quick breaths were tattered and ragged.

The Bird Queen snorted in disgust, pulling back from her lover. He could see a problem in her eyes as her hand subconsciously reached for her sword, which had been dropped somewhere nearby.

She looked back up at him suddenly with a sweet smile, her violet eyes holding something close to mischievousness. She pulled away from him, her hand pulling his sword from the holster as she did so. He raised an eyebrow as she gave him a peck on the cheek, and then turned to cross over the rubble to the dying woman.

The human let out a terrified shriek as her eyes fell on the winged beauty. The enterran only grimaced at the noise as she raised the cold steel above her head.

* * *

There was nothing she found that was wrong with blood; she found it to resemble rose petals, the warm droplets pooling around them like the crimson flowers. It was romantic. She had worked quite hard, using the bright liquid to paint a beautiful scene across the scathed hillside. So she found herself wondering what made him growl in annoyance whenever he lifted from a heated kiss, only to find the ends of his purple locks drenched in the sticky red substance. She knew he was genuinely agitated, as his kisses were more forceful, bruising her lips as he crashed his own down upon them.

He gazed down at her, annoyed, but a seductive smile tugging at his lips.

"The humans aren't the only ones who better learn to crawl," he purred into her ear, fingers tangled in her bloody blonde locks as he leaned in for another kiss.

She bit them again and pulled back to offer the same smile. "My thoughts exactly."

**Please review! Next on the tracklist, Sex on Fire**

**~Mushraluvr**


	3. Sex on Fire

**I've deleted the previous chapter two that was eleven, Cold Dessert. I shall add it again when done. Please read the new chapter two and chapter three if you can. **

3. Sex on Fire

Rating: T

Genre: Romance

Characters: Saago/Yakumo

_Warning: PG16, nothing graphic, but entirely implied. Just read the title._

There was a rustling of the blankets, a quick breath through parted lips, and a flurry of motion as a pale hand reached up to caress rosy cheeks, thin lips pressed against her cherry full ones.

"Shhh," he breathed into her ear, soft as a feather falling, "Someone's awake." The couple held their breath, which was quite difficult when their lungs were already demanding more air. Time seemed to stand still as the two strained their ears for any other sounds hidden by the chirping crickets and nighttime melodies.

There it was, the tiny shuffling in the direction of Kutall's tent and a grunt of effort, then a sigh. They stayed quiet a bit longer, the aqua-haired man holding a slim finger against the brunette's quivering lips.

"Move _over_, Rei!" came the agitated whisper of said kitten's brother. There was a groan in response and a muttered "Finally" before things quieted down a bit. In a few moments, the steady breathing of both brothers joined the symphony of the night.

"There," he finally breathed, looking down at the woman lying on his chest. "Now where were we?" He smiled, drawing her close, his hand sneaking beneath her thin nightshirt to rub her back.

"Saago," she breathed, still as quiet as a breeze to keep her voice inside her tent, absently tracing unseen patterns across his bare chest, "not tonight. Too much is going on, and Mushra almost caught us last time."

She frowned, her lips drawn downward into that cute face that he knew meant she was thinking hard about something. He kissed the top of her head, still rubbing her back as he let her solve whatever it was.

"Is this okay?" she asked quietly, hiding her face against him, her heart hammering against her chest hard enough that he could feel it though his own.

This wasn't so unexpected; he was actually wondering when she was going to voice the concern at all. He rolled over to where she laid beside him and moved down to where he could face her, pulling the pillow down for both of them. She looked up at him, her sapphire eyes sparkling like stars in the dark, her cheeks turning more flushed as she waited for his answer.

Saago could only smile as he leaned in, his nose touching hers, "Only if you want it to be, my angel."

Her eyes didn't meet his again, but he saw the small smile she tried to hide with the edge of the blanket. Watching her drift off to sleep, he whispered "Another time then." Little did he know that the human's dreams mirrored his own, deeply consumed by what's to transpire.

* * *

He found her absolutely gorgeous: soft open lips that quivered in the slight chill; her knuckles, pale and tense, clutching the tangled blankets beneath her; the rosy blush that spread from her cheekbones to her supple chest and how it caused her silky brown hair to stick to her skin in a tangled mess; and most of all her eyes, blue as the sea itself, lit with a fire that seemed to burn to her bones. It was amazingly beautiful! Her eyes were clenched shut, her chest heaving as she drew in each gasping breath, but he caught the smile that pulled at her parted lips. The sun was coming over the horizon outside, its orange light spilling in through the open curtains and bathing them in its light.

He leaned down, tasting the salty skin of her neck before capturing her lips again with his own. She responded, still soft and gentle with her lips as their first kiss. She brought her soft hands to his face, slender fingers lacing through his dark-cyan hair, damp with sweat, her heart pouring into the gesture.

As they pulled away, he noticed a bit of worry in her eyes, the way they darted from his lips to his eyes, her brows furrowed in thought.

"Is it still bothering you?" he asked sweetly, laying down beside her and wrapping his arms around her bare back.

"When I get to Shinzo . . ." she began quietly after a long pause, her voice slightly hoarse from her frantic moans from earlier. "Do you think that we can . . . stay like this? Together?"

Saago rubbed her back thoughtfully, thinking carefully through the problem. All was silent for quite some time, save for their breaths as they steadied out. Yakumo had been nuzzling his bare chest, comforted by his presence and genuinely grateful that he put so much thought into the problem that plagued her.

Finally, he leaned back to look at her face, pulling the covers over her bare shoulders to warm her as he looked straight into her eyes, ocean blue meeting sapphire.

"In the end, if there's no way, I won't care," he said softly, smiling at the confused look that flashed in her deep blue eyes. "If it's not forever, if it's just for this night, it won't bother me. You, us, this," he motioned to her arms wrapped around his waist, "life, _everything_ – It's still the greatest."

She smiled up at him a bit tentatively with a tiny nod, hugging him tighter as she spoke into his chest. "I want it to last, us, that is; but if we can't, I think I'll always be grateful for this."

He smiled, glad that she understood. He wanted it to last so badly; he was practically drunk on her and the way she made him feel. She was so gentle and soft, but held a type of will that stirred up the ocean inside of him into a squall of passion and emotion. Her inner fire made him boil in a pleasant kind of way, the feelings constantly rolling over themselves to create a warm steamy feeling in the pit of his stomach. Though, he knew that it was because she made him feel like this that he could let her go. It was almost like gambling – even if things didn't work in the end, he still had fun getting to that point.

He leaned into her ear, whispering in a low tone, "You know, it may be a lot of trouble, but I think it can work. It doesn't hurt that, even for a human, your sex is on fire."

A crimson blush fired up across her face, her eyes wide and shocked, before she buried her face into his chest so that he couldn't see her expression. He chuckled, combing his fingers through her hair, and tilted her head up to his own to claim her lips.

He deepened the kiss quickly, all his emotions pouring out through his lips and into her, his body crying out for her as he set out to prove to her just how right he was. 

**Next on the tracklist, Use Somebody. Please review! Tell me what you think.**

**~Mushraluvr**


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